Sediment accumulation in water storage tanks may protect microorganisms from disinfectant exposure, causing water quality degradation. However, microbial activity and disinfectant penetration within water storage sediment remains largely uncharacterized. This study evaluated monochloramine and free chlorine penetration into a 2-cm (20,000 µm) deep drinking water storage tank sediment using microelectrodes. The sediment was successively exposed to 4-months monochloramine, 2-months free chlorine, and 2-months monochloramine. Temporal monochloramine, free chlorine, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate profiles were acquired using microelectrodes. Results showed that complete monochloramine or free chlorine penetration was not observed. Likewise, DO never fully penetrated the sediment, progressing inward with time to a maximum depth of 10,000 µm and indicating microbial activity remained during the entire 8 months. Decreasing ammonium and increasing nitrate concentrations, with minimal nitrite accumulation, further demonstrated microbial activity and indicated complete sediment nitrification. There was measurable ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate during free chlorine application and nitrification activity gradually resumed upon a switch back to monochloramine. These findings suggest that periodic sediment removal from drinking water storage facilities is desirable to remove potentially protected environments for microorganisms. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Liu, H., D. Wahman, and J. Pressman. Evaluation of Monochloramine and Free Chlorine Penetration in a Drinking Water Storage Tank Sediment Using Microelectrodes. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, USA, 53(16): 9352-9360, (2019).

This study aimed to (1) enrich microbial acetylenotrophs from trichloroethylene (TCE) contaminated groundwater and (2) evaluate whether these enrichments could degrade TCE coupled to acetylene degradation. Acetylenotrophs are microorganisms that use acetylene as their carbon and energy source. TCE contaminated groundwater was collected from wells at the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) in West Trenton, New Jersey. Microbial acetylene uptake in groundwater samples was established by mixing the groundwater with a defined mineral medium to supply nutrients and providing acetylene as the sole electron donor and carbon source. The structure of the microbial community in those enrichments was characterized as shown by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and analysis. The acetylenotrophic groundwater enrichment cultures were then tested to assess whether they could utilize acetylene to drive reduction of TCE and tetrachloroethene (PCE) to vinyl chloride.

This study aimed to (1) enrich microbial acetylenotrophs from trichloroethylene (TCE) contaminated groundwater and (2) evaluate whether these enrichments could degrade TCE coupled to acetylene degradation. Acetylenotrophs are microorganisms that use acetylene as their carbon and energy source. TCE contaminated groundwater was collected from wells at the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) in West Trenton, New Jersey. Microbial acetylene uptake in groundwater samples was established by mixing the groundwater with a defined mineral medium to supply nutrients and providing acetylene as the sole electron donor and carbon source. The structure of the microbial community in those enrichments was characterized as shown by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and analysis. The acetylenotrophic groundwater enrichment cultures were then tested to assess whether they could utilize acetylene to drive reduction of TCE and tetrachloroethene (PCE) to vinyl chloride.

The bacteria sequence data generated in this study is available in the Short Read Archive (SRA) of NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) under BioProject PRJNA509718. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Siponen, S., J. Ikonen, V. Gomez-Alvarez, A. Hokajärvi, M. Ruokolainen, B. Jayaprakash, M. Kolehmainen, I.T. Miettinen, T. Pitkänen, and E. Torvinen. Effect of Pipe Material and Disinfectant on Active Bacterial Communities in Drinking Water and Biofilms. JOURNAL OF APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, USA, 136(1): lxaf004, (2025).

Water Quality Data for Separate and Combined Sewer Systems, including: Biochemical Oxygen Demand (mg/L) Tot. Suspended Solids (mg/L) Cyanide (mg/L) Cyanide Free (Low Level) (ug/L) Cyanide Amenable (mg/L) Antimony (mg/L) Arsenic (mg/L) Beryllium (mg/L) Cadmium (mg/L) Calcium (mg/L) Chromium (mg/L) Cobalt (mg/L) Copper (mg/L) Iron (mg/L) Lead (mg/L) Magnesium (mg/L) Molybdenum (mg/L) Nickel (mg/L) Selenium (mg/L) Silver (mg/L) Strontium (mg/L) Thallium (mg/L) Tin (mg/L) Titanium (mg/L) Vanadium (mg/L) Zinc (mg/L) Nitrite as N (mg/L) Ammonia as N (mg/L) Nitrate + Nitrite (mg/L) Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (mg/L) Total Phosphorus (mg/L) COD (mg/L) Nitrate as N Calc (mg/L). This dataset is associated with the following publication: Butzlaff, A.H., J. Deighton, T. Le, A. Brougham, S.M. Bessler, T. McKnight, and M. Ateia. PFAS, 6-PPD-Q, and microplastics in urban sewer overflows: co-occurrence and high-rate treatment assessment .. NATURE. Nature Portfolio, Berlin, GERMANY, 1: 5, (2025).

Dead-end sections of drinking water distribution networks are known to be problematic zones in terms of water quality degradation. Extended residence time due to water stagnation leads to rapid reduction of disinfectant residuals allowing the regrowth of microbial pathogens. Water quality models developed so far apply spatial aggregation and temporal averaging techniques for hydraulic parameters by assigning hourly averaged water demands to the main nodes of the network. Although this practice has generally resulted in minimal loss of accuracy for the predicted disinfectant concentrations in main water transmission lines, this is not the case for the peripheries of the distribution network. This study proposes a new approach for simulating disinfectant residuals in dead end pipes while accounting for both spatial and temporal variability in hydraulic and transport parameters. A stochastic demand generator was developed to represent residential water pulses based on a non-homogenous Poisson process. Dispersive solute transport was considered using highly dynamic dispersion rates. A genetic algorithm was used to calibrate the axial hydraulic profile of the dead-end pipe based on the different demand shares of the withdrawal nodes. A parametric sensitivity analysis was done to assess the model performance under variation of different simulation parameters. A group of Monte-Carlo ensembles was carried out to investigate the influence of spatial and temporal variations in flow demands on the simulation accuracy. A set of three correction factors were analytically derived to adjust residence time, dispersion rate and wall demand to overcome simulation error caused by spatial aggregation approximation. The current model results show better agreement with field-measured concentrations of conservative fluoride tracer and free chlorine disinfectant than the simulations of recent advection dispersion reaction models published in the literature. Accuracy of the simulated concentration profiles showed significant dependence on the spatial distribution of the flow demands compared to temporal variation. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Abokifa, A., J. Yang , C. Lo, and P. Biswas. Water Quality Modeling in the Dead End Sections of Drinking Water Distribution Networks. WATER RESEARCH. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, USA, 18(89): 107-117, (2015).

Dead-end sections of drinking water distribution networks are known to be problematic zones in terms of water quality degradation. Extended residence time due to water stagnation leads to rapid reduction of disinfectant residuals allowing the regrowth of microbial pathogens. Water quality models developed so far apply spatial aggregation and temporal averaging techniques for hydraulic parameters by assigning hourly averaged water demands to the main nodes of the network. Although this practice has generally resulted in minimal loss of accuracy for the predicted disinfectant concentrations in main water transmission lines, this is not the case for the peripheries of the distribution network. This study proposes a new approach for simulating disinfectant residuals in dead end pipes while accounting for both spatial and temporal variability in hydraulic and transport parameters. A stochastic demand generator was developed to represent residential water pulses based on a non-homogenous Poisson process. Dispersive solute transport was considered using highly dynamic dispersion rates. A genetic algorithm was used to calibrate the axial hydraulic profile of the dead-end pipe based on the different demand shares of the withdrawal nodes. A parametric sensitivity analysis was done to assess the model performance under variation of different simulation parameters. A group of Monte-Carlo ensembles was carried out to investigate the influence of spatial and temporal variations in flow demands on the simulation accuracy. A set of three correction factors were analytically derived to adjust residence time, dispersion rate and wall demand to overcome simulation error caused by spatial aggregation approximation. The current model results show better agreement with field-measured concentrations of conservative fluoride tracer and free chlorine disinfectant than the simulations of recent advection dispersion reaction models published in the literature. Accuracy of the simulated concentration profiles showed significant dependence on the spatial distribution of the flow demands compared to temporal variation. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Abokifa, A., J. Yang , C. Lo, and P. Biswas. Water Quality Modeling in the Dead End Sections of Drinking Water Distribution Networks. WATER RESEARCH. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, USA, 18(89): 107-117, (2015).

Decontamination of Bacillus spores adhered to common drinking water infrastructure surfaces was evaluated using a variety of disinfectants. Corroded iron and cement-mortar lined iron represented the infrastructure surfaces, and were conditioned in a 23 m long, 15 cm diameter (75 ft long, 6 in diameter) pilot-scale drinking water distribution pipe system. Decontamination was evaluated using increased water velocity (flushing) alone at 0.5 m sec-1 (1.7 ft sec-1), as well as free chlorine (5 and 25 mg L-1), monochloramine (25 mg L-1), chlorine dioxide (5 and 25 mg L-1), ozone (2.0 mg L-1), peracetic acid 25 mg L-1) and acidified nitrite (0.1 mol L-1 at pH 2 and 3), all followed by flushing at 0.3 m sec-1 (1 ft sec-1). Flushing alone reduced the adhered spores by 0.5 and 2.0 log10 from iron and cement-mortar, respectively. Log10 reduction on corroded iron pipe wall coupons ranged from 1.0 to 2.9 at respective chlorine dioxide concentrations of 5 and 25 mg L-1, although spores were undetectable on the iron surface during disinfection at 25 mg L-1. Acidified nitrite (pH 2, 0.1 mol L-1) yielded no detectable spores on the iron surface during the flushing phase after disinfection. Chlorine dioxide was the best performing disinfectant with >3.0 log10 removal from cement-mortar at 5 and 25 mg L-1.The data show that free chlorine, monochloramine, ozone and chlorine dioxide followed by flushing can reduce adhered spores by >3.0 log10 on cement-mortar. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Szabo , J., G. Meiners, L. Heckman, G. Rice , and J. Hall. Decontamination of Bacillus spores adhered to iron and cement-mortar drinking water infrastructure in a model system using disinfectants. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, USA, 187: 1-7, (2017).